


Lost in Me, Lost in You

by erinn_bedford



Category: Still Star-Crossed (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Fluff, Rosaline is a bit of a control freak, and Ben is bit of an artist, and together they are a bit of a mess, but its a good mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 11:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13247376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erinn_bedford/pseuds/erinn_bedford
Summary: The logical part of her brain is silent. Maybe it’s because it’s the early hours of the morning, or maybe it’s because she doesn’t want to be alone, or maybe it’s because she wants to know what Benvolio Montague’s lips taste like.Or, the coffee shop au where Rosaline falls in love with the art while trying to find the artist.





	Lost in Me, Lost in You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [openmouthwideeye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/openmouthwideeye/gifts).



> From the tumblr prompt "i’m the manager and one of the other employees keeps drawing amazing art on the chalkboards, but i can’t figure out who it is?? i’ve been keeping a meticulous schedule to figure out whose shift it appears during" from the amazing and wonderful openmouthwideeye. Title from "Angela" by the Lumineers. Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading!

It starts October 1st.

Rosaline walks into Much Ado About Coffee at noon and the entire coffeeshop looks like Halloween exploded inside of it. There’s pumpkins and skeletons and spiders, but what stands out the most, is the chalk boards.

Romeo and Juliet insisted on chalkboards for their store, to have a homier feel, ones that they could change up and have specials on, and some to leave blank for customers to leave messages and picture on. But on every single chalkboard, there is an incredibly detailed picture. Some have pumpkins and leaves, but others have skeletons telling each other jokes and one has an amazing likeness of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo in a costume, and Juliet with a hand to her head saying it’s only October first.

They are beautiful, and wonderful, and Rosaline has no idea where they came from.

The drawings appear every couple of days, small changes every now and then. The leaf pile at the bottom of the chalk board grows, Romeo’s outfit changes slightly, Juliet gains a costume.

And no matter how hard Rosaline tries, she cannot figure out who is behind them.

In November, all of the Halloween themes disappear, and instead, there’s some turkey’s and leaves and in the corner of some, there’s holly branches. The main chalkboard, where Romeo and Juliet where drawn last time is now occupied with an image of Mercutio trying to pop out of a box saying, ‘ITS CHRISTMAS’ while the rest of the staff as Much Ado About Coffee pushes him back down.

It’s quite charming, and Rosaline is particularly pleased with how she turned out, but it’s driving her crazy. No one owns up to the drawings. No matter how many times she asks.

“Ros, calm down.” Juliet says, placing the fresh pot of tea between them.

“I am calm, Jules, I just want to know who it is. Aren’t you the least bit curious?” Rosaline asks, pouring herself a new cup of tea.

The coffee shop is closed, but it’s their month to do paperwork. Romeo and Benvolio would have it the next month. Rosaline had proposed it two months after they opened, after the four of them tried to do it together, which only resulted in Romeo and Juliet fawning over each other while Rosaline tried not to behead the other Montague with a butter knife. It had worked, and three years later, it was still working.

Much Ado About Coffee was not only successful in business, it also was successful in having Capulet’s and Montague’s under the same roof, without the cops being called.

Well, for the most part.

“No, actually, I’m not. The drawings are beautiful, the customers love them. No one is getting hurt.” Juliet passes her a stack of papers. “Also, I think it’s a great exercise.”

“Exercise? In what?”

Juliet smiles, before tapping Rosaline on the nose with her pen. “You being less of a control freak.”

“I’m not a control freak!”

Juliet glares at her, as lovingly as she can. “Why do you think I made you manager, Ros? Because you’re my favorite cousin? No, because you are good at keeping things in control. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s just, not everything can be planned out perfectly in a notebook. And you not knowing who draws the pictures is good way for you to release some of that control.”

Rosaline stares at the papers for a moment, mulling over what Juliet says. They sit quietly for a while, working and drinking tea.

“I’m going to find out who it is. And not because I’m a control freak, but so I can say thank you.” Rosaline says, once they’ve finished paychecks and schedules.

Juliet just shakes her head and takes the tea pot back to the kitchen. They link arms on their way out, and Rosaline ignores the chalkboards as best as she can, deciding to plan her attack tomorrow.

“Hey, what do you mean I’m not your favorite cousin?” She asks, as Juliet drops her off in front of her apartment.

A smirk that mirrors Romeo Montague’s signature facial expression falls upon Juliet’s face.

“Come on, Rosaline, we all know it’s Tybalt.”

xXx

The schedule work like this. Capulet’s and Montague’s have separate hours, unless they are Romeo and Juliet, and Rosaline’s shift never overlaps with Benvolio’s. It’s the only rule that Rosaline keeps in place, because it’s the only way the place has not burned to the ground yet.

Which, according to everyone else isn’t true. In the three years since the marriage of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, the only ones in the younger generation who still don’t like each other are Rosaline and Benvolio, but no one has a problem with their schedule so they leave it be.

Until, the week it changes.

It’s the middle of December, the chalk boards filled with scenes snow and sleigh rides. Nearly every holiday is represented, and the big board is a snow ball fight, with all of the employees on different sides, corresponding to their schedule. That’s what gives Rosaline the idea to switch it up.

The sketches seem to appear almost in the middle of night, never corresponding to any one’s shift, so the only clue she gets is the specials sign.

It’s on one of the moveable chalkboards, one that sits outside during the nicer weather. It changes every other day, and never during her shifts. So, Rosaline can narrow it down to days she calls “Montague days,” but that’s as far as she gets.

The only wat to figure it out is to change the schedule. She switches it up, changes the days, mixes Capulet’s and Montague’s.

Rosaline’s at the coffee shop on her day off when the schedule comes out. She ran out of coffee at home, and she already knows everyone is going to have something to say about the new schedule, so it’s easier to already be there when questions start being asked. She’s in one of the corner booths, drinking her coffee and reading her book, when Mercutio stalks out of the back, the paper clutched in his hands.

He marches straight to her table, and tosses the paper on her croissant. “I’ve been asking to work with Livia for over two years, what changed?”

Before she can answer, Romeo falls into the booth across from her, with a new croissant. “Ros, are you feeling okay?”

She places her book down and grabs the pastry from Romeo. “Yes. Why?”

Romeo rubs his temple and grabs the paper. “The schedule…” He trails off and Mercutio jumps in.

“I’m working with Livia.” He presses his hands against her forehead. “She doesn’t have a fever.”

“You’re working with Ben.” Romeo says, and Mercutio gasps.

“You guys are being dramatic.”

“The last time you two worked together —” Romeo starts.

“You almost burned down my coffee shop.” Juliet finishes as she passes by with a new pot of coffee.

“Again, dramatic. We only burned a single pot of coffee.” Rosaline says.

“Why are you doing this?” Romeo asks, stealing a piece of her croissant.

“I feel like we need a switch up. A practice session for when you two leave for two weeks on a three years too late honeymoon.” Rosaline answers. She stares at her croissant, hoping the two men across from her can’t read her as well as Livia and Juliet.

“I don’t know, Ros, you and Ben are like cats and dogs.” Romeo says, still staring at the schedule warily.

“Would you rather it happen when you and Juliet are not here?”

Romeo shakes his head.

“Exactly. You guys can parent us as much as you want, so when you are not here, we know how to play nice.”

Juliet walks past again, this time stopping to refill Rosaline’s cup. Rosaline can feel Juliet’s eyes on her, and she knows her cousin can see right through her, so she pulls out her book again, and refuses to answer any more questions about her and Benvolio.

If working with Benvolio Montague can help her figure out who’s behind the drawings, well then, she’s willing to do it.

xXx

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

They were not supposed to be alone, but Juliet caught the flu, and then Mercutio had a family emergency, and everyone else was busy, so Rosaline is stuck in the closing shift alone with The Montague.

It’s a quiet night, only a few regulars occupying their favorite spots of Much Ado, so Rosaline is forced to spend even more time with Benvolio than planned. For the most part, they are able to stay out of each other’s way, nothing more than eye rolls and gruff excuses me, but she’s been cleaning the same spot for 15 minutes waiting for any kind of distraction, but nothing is coming to her aide.

She can feel him, just behind her, counting the money in the cash register. The air is tense around them, pressing the minutes into eternities. She doesn’t know what to do though. They can rarely ever get through a conversation without it resulting in an argument, and it is her fault that this is happening, so she needs to prove to everyone, especially Juliet that she is not incapable of being an adult. 

Even if it means shattering a coffee cup when he brushes past her.

The cup falls to the floor, sounding like an avalanche in the otherwise quiet coffee shop.

“A bit jumpy there, Capulet?” Benvolio asks, passing her the dustpan.

“Shut up.” She says, her words tinged with more poison that she intended. But instead of biting back, he raises his hands in defeat and gives her a tight grin before moving to help the costumer who walked over to investigate the noise.

Rosaline sighs, and tries to get herself together. She knows she’s being a bitch, that she’s always been a bitch to Benvolio, but she still can’t figure out why.

She’s been especially out of it lately. Maybe it’s because the 10-year anniversary of her parent’s death just past, or because Livia is moving in with her boyfriend that Rosaline doesn’t trust, or maybe it’s because she’s sort of fallen in love with someone through their pictures, or maybe it’s nothing at all.

Maybe it’s because Juliet was right and she’s a bit of a control freak, and Benvolio Montague is something she can’t keep in control. She ignores him because together they are explosive, but also because she remembers the time at Romeo and Juliet’s wedding when he smiled at her and made her knees go weak.

She can’t figure him out, so instead she fights with him, or ignores him completely, and apparently, she breaks mugs when he touches her.

“Hey, Capulet.”

She’s been so lost inside her own head, she doesn’t see him crouch down next to her, gently picking up the larger pieces.

“I don’t bite.” His voice is soft, and the hum of the coffee shop buzzes back to life, and she catches his too bright eyes, and his hand brushes over her wrist, concern in his eyes. “You okay?”

Before she can answer, his phone buzzes, and the moment is gone, and she is Rosaline Capulet, and he is Benvolio Montague, and they separate, but she can still feel his fingertips over her pulse, and she wonders if he was able to feel how it jumped.

“I swear to god, if Romeo doesn’t stop texting me asking how it’s going I’m going to tell him we burned down the shop.” He tosses his phone back in its spot behind the counter, rubbing a hand over his face.

“How long do you think it would take him to show up in you didn’t text him back.” Rosaline teases as she finishes sweeping up the shattered ceramics.

“Maybe I’ll just send him a picture of the broken mug, and the shut off my phone.” He smiles at her, that same damn smile he gave her at Romeo and Juliet’s wedding. The smile he used after he asked her to dance, the smile she would have said yes to if her aunt didn’t come shrieking about something wrong with the cake.

And maybe it’s the smile, or maybe it’s the fact that the tension had dissipated so she can breathe again, or maybe it’s nothing, but as she walks past him again, she stops.

“Do you know whose drawing on the chalkboards every day?”

Benvolio stills, the fresh coffee pot in his hands almost overflowing. “What?” He glances at her, face completely passive.

“The chalkboard drawings. They’re wonderful, and I’m curious about whose behind them.”

Benvolio simply shrugs, and then he’s gone, a fresh pot of coffee with him, leaving Rosaline even more confused about everything.

xXx

“Let me give you a ride home.” Benvolio says as they’re locking up. It’s freezing outside, cold enough so that every time she breathes she can see it. Benvolio’s bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands stuffed in his pockets, staring at her.

“What?” She asks.

Benvolio shivers, and tosses his head toward his car. “I saw Livia drop you off today, and I don’t see her now, so let me give you a ride.”

“I live two blocks away, it’s fine.”

He rolls his eyes, and steps closer to her. “Let me give you a ride Capulet. Remember, I don’t bite.” He’s turtled in his coat, but she can see the edge of his smile.

“I —”

“If Juliet hears I let you walk home in this weather, she would actually kill me. Come on, before we both get frostbite.” He starts walking, and she wants to protest, but she’s already starting to lose feeling in her fingers, so she follows him around back to his stupidly large car, and almost sighs when the heat meets her skin.

It’s only a five-minute drive to her apartment, one that she’s done countless times, but the minutes feel longer with Benvolio next to her. The radio hums softly between them, and he taps along to the beat of the song on his steering wheel.

“You still live in the same place, right?” He asks at the light, dousing his face in red.

“Yep.” she says. She forgot, that he used to drive Romeo around, dropping him off at her house when him and Juliet where dating, forgot the times he would drive Juliet to her place instead of home, afraid of Mr. Capulet. It’s been such a long time since then that the fact that he remembers is pretty amazing.

He pulls up to her door and before she can say anything he’s unclipped his seat belt and is out of the car. He walks her to the door, leaning against the porch as she pulls out her keys.

“Thanks for the ride.” She says, fidgeting with the keys.

“Yeah, no problem.” He looks like he wants to say more, but he pushes himself up and moves toward the car. “See you on Tuesday, Capulet.” He says, before half jogging down the walk way. He waves at her before he pulls away, and Rosaline smiles.

She doesn’t know exactly what happened in the past three hours between her and Benvolio Montague, but it feels like something good.

xXx

It’s snowing.

It’s three a.m. and it’s snowing, and Rosaline Capulet is wide awake.

She had been on the phone with their coffee distributor for over 2 hours, trying to figure out when they would be able to get their next shipment. They had been running a bit low on some of the more popular flavors, and the weather was making it difficult for new shipments.

She knows she should go to bed, but instead she finds herself, in the snow at three a.m., making her way to the coffee shop.

It’s the first snow of the new year, the weather forecast calling for a blizzard. And technically, she’s the one in charge, Romeo and Juliet off in Italy, so she could close Much Ado About Coffee for the weather, but for some reason, she wants to be there instead of home.

There’s a comfort she finds in being inside of the coffee shop, a warmth and a coziness that doesn’t make much sense to her, but she knows it will be warm and there will be coffee and she’s not ready to go back to bed yet.

To her surprise, the lights are already on, and there’s a brief moment of panic, until she sees someone sitting at a table, a pot of tea in front of him. Apparently, she’s not the only one couldn’t sleep.

The door chime jingles as she steps in, causing the person to jump. They turn, and Rosaline is met with too bright eyes and for some stupid reason her stomach flips.

“And here I thought I was the only person in Verona who was awake.” Benvolio says.

Rosaline falls into the seat across from him, and takes his cup of tea without asking. He rolls his eyes playfully at her, before disappearing behind the counter a returning with a new cup.

He maneuvers the pot around the chalk board in front of him, and that’s when everything clicks. All of the chalk boards have been wiped down, the images of New Year’s washed away. The chalkboard on the table is only in the beginning stages of a drawing, and Benvolio has chalk on his nose.

“It’s you.” She says, more of a gasp than actual words.

“Yes. It’s me.” He says, taking a sip of his tea.

“No. I mean, you’re the one drawing the pictures.”

“Oh, yeah.” He rubs his nose, as if suddenly aware of the smudge of chalk. “Yeah, sometimes I can’t sleep.”

“I asked you about it!”

“Yeah. I um—” He shrugs, and Rosaline doesn’t know whether to kiss him or to hit him.

“They’ve been driving me crazy for months. They are so detailed, and so beautiful, and so…” She doesn’t even know what to say. Her brain is over drive, trying to connect the fact that she’s sort of fallen in love with Benvolio Montague through his drawings, when three weeks ago she could barely sit in the same room as him. “I changed the schedule trying to figure it out.”

The hint of smile plays along his lips. “I thought it was just so you could spend time with me.”

Rosaline definitely wants to hit him now, but instead she leans further into the table and studies him. “How do you do it? How do you capture everyone so wonderfully?” She picks up her tea and blows on it, mainly to keep her hands occupied so she doesn’t reach across the table and do something rash.

“I don’t know. I just study people I guess. Like,” he grabs the chalk and starts to sketch. “Mercutio’s nose is slightly crooked from when he broke it in high school,” He says, Mercutio’s face appearing on the chalk board. He erases it with the sleeve of his sweater and starts again. “Juliet’s eyes are almost always smiling, and Romeo has his signature smile, and Livia’s eye brows are always perfect, and —” He stops erasing all of the faces he just drew. “And you. You always have this one curl, that no matter how you wear your hair, it never stays in place.” He glances up her, and then back down to the board, and before she knows it, there’s an image of her, smiling over her coffee mug.

He reaches out, and his fingers brush against the curl he is talking about, and Rosaline wishes the table would disappear.

She leans her head into his hand, and his thumb brushes against her cheek.

It’s three a.m., and it’s snowing, and Rosaline has never been less in control of anything, and somehow, it doesn’t scare her.

Her phone rings, blasting into the quiet, and Benvolio’s hand drops from her face and onto the table.

Juliet’s face smiles at her from her phone and Rosaline slumps back in the booth. “Hello?”

“Ros! What are you doing up? I saw you’re at the coffee shop.” Juliet says.

“Couldn’t sleep. What’s up?”

“I was just going to say, close the shop today. I saw the forecast, and honestly, it’s not worth it.”

Rosaline can hear Romeo mumble something at the end of the line.

“Go home, Rosaline. Oh, and tell Ben I said hi!” She hangs up before Rosaline can question her.

“How do they —”

“Romeo has my location. And Juliet probably has yours.” Benvolio supplies, but he’s staring at the table, his ears tinged red.

Rosaline stretches, and Benvolio glances up her, eyes full of something that makes her wish the table would just disappear again.

“Do you, uh, do you want to come back to my place? I can make pancakes.” He asks.

The logical part of her brain is silent. Maybe it’s because it’s the early hours of the morning, or maybe it’s because she doesn’t want to be alone, or maybe it’s because she wants to know what Benvolio Montague’s lips taste like. But she nods, and Ben’s face lights up.

She grabs the pot of tea and their mugs, and walks back to the sink so she can wash them. She needs a moment to collect herself. She finishes drying the cups and putting them back where they belong, and he’s packing up his chalk when she comes back. She leans against the counter, watching him, almost mad at herself for not realizing he was the one drawing sooner. He always had a sketch book with him in high school, and she knows at least two of the paintings in Romeo and Juliet’s house are by him.

She’s lost in her own thoughts again when he stops in front of her, leaning against the counter so they almost meet in the middle.

“Like something you see, Capulet?” He asks, smiling teasing on his lips.

“Depends on how good your pancakes are Montague.”

And then, he’s laughing, and she’s leaning forward, and his hand is in her hair again, and then his lips meet hers, and he tastes like tea and honey.

Rosaline pulls apart so she can move from behind the counter, and she grabs his face and pulls his lips to hers again.

He’s smiling against her lips and he’s tugging her closer and her heart is pounding so hard she’s afraid she might burst.

He pulls back first, bruised lips and breathless. “I’ve wanted to do that since the misfits got married.”

“What took you so long?” Rosaline nudges his nose with hers, and his smile on grows.

“I thought you hated me.”

“Only a little bit.”

He scoops her up and places her on the counter, mouth hard against hers, finger tips sliding under her shirt.

When the finally leave the coffee shop, the sun is just starting to peak over the horizon, and the blanket of snow is thick enough to make everything look bright, and shining, and new.

It’s the beginning of a new day, at the start of a new year, and Rosaline can feel that it’s going to be good one.


End file.
